Dragon Transport Ship

The dragon transport ships are a specially designed to carry dragons, their bow is taken up by a huge Dragondeck, used for the landing and housing of dragons. The dragondeck as the name implies is an open area of deck where a travelling dragon would stay. The deck is heated from below by the presence of the galley, but offers no additional shelter from the elements than any other part of the open deck.

They could carry around one hundred and half tons.

Often the dragon transport ships had to wait in the open sea for weeks or months as rest and supplying platform for the travelling dragons. When used in this way the transports could be considered stepping stones across large bodies of water that a dragon would not usually have the endurance to traverse.

Captaincy of a ship of this class was not usually considered to be a high honour. During the 18th and early 19th century dragons were considered to be dangerous beast of low intelligence despite their ability to talk, and close proximity to them as could be expected on a Dragon Transport was avoided. In addition, as Dragon Transports are large ponderous craft, it was rare for them to be in a position to claim foreign ships as prizes. This meant that the prize monies that crews of fighting ships earned were rare for the officers and crews of transports, further lowering their desirability.

There are at least seven in the class, including HMS Allegiance, HMS William of Orange, and HMS Lyonesse.